On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:35:46 -0700, Andy wrote:

On Sep 14, 3:18Â*pm, Ian wrote:
When we were rolling I noticed the dusty moving across the airfield
towards our runway.

Faced with the same situation again would you chose to release? Arizona
has stong summer thermals many of which produce dust devils. It's not
uncommon to delay a launch rather than fly into the path of one at very
low altitude.

Hindsite is 20/20 vision.

There was a whole grid of gliders behind me anxious to get launched
during the "weather window". Aborting may have seen me launching at the
back of the grid, after the gate had opened.

I noticed the dusty after I had given the all out signal. At that stage
it was still 100's of meters away from our runway. Next time I saw it,
was in my peripheral vision and the glider was already airbone. It was
moving much faster than I would have expected and it turned out to be
much stronger.

Clearly we got that one wrong. The right time to hold the launch was
before it started. But it was a pretty freak occurence. If it happened
again I am not sure if I would call it right.

Ian